Split squad, people! Nathan Eovaldi goes up against Hisashi Iwakuma and the Mariners in the noon game, and then Chad Billingsley takes the mound against Philip "Humb and" Humber in the evening game with the Pale Hose. We so own the ChiSox--our Cactus League D-League team--that I know we'll come away with at least one win today, and possibly two.
Harry Wendelstedt, a National League umpire for 33 years who owned a school that developed dozens of Major League umpires, died Friday at the age of 73.All of us who are longtime baseball fans remember Harry for his more than 30 years as an umpire. And those of us who are longtime Dodgers fans, whether we were alive then or if we know the lore, remember Harry for his controversial call that helped preserve Don Drysdale's scoreless inning streak.
Wendelstedt, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor 10 years ago, according to his son, Major League umpire Hunter Wendelstedt, died in Ormond Beach, Fla., where he lived and where the Harry Wendelstedt Umpire School is located.
Wendelstedt umpired in five World Series, seven National League Championship Series and four All-Star Games. He was the crew chief in the 1980 and '95 Fall Classics. His big league career began in '66 and ended in '98.
"He lived for baseball. He lived for umpiring. When we were getting him into the ambulance [this morning] he had MLB [Network] TV on. That's all he would watch."That's the way I want to go out. RIP Harry. Now Drysdale can thank you again in person in baseball heaven.
Clayton Kershaw takes on the Texas Bridesmaids, winners of two straight runner-up World Series trophies. Go, Minotaur!
For years now, I have been amazed at Clippers owner Donald Sterling's absurdity. Here is a man with incredible wealth, with ownership of a professional basketball team and a rich portfolio of real estate assets, who is looking to publicize his philanthropic efforts and donations. He places advertisements in the print edition of the Los Angeles Times with stunning regularity. One would think that these self-promoting efforts would at least create some semblance of goodwill about his noblesse, his philhanthropic nature, his kind heart.
Except that these ads are so poorly written, so rife with errors, so careless in their assembly and so horrific in their styling, that the end result goes right in the face of the objective Sterling is trying to achieve.
These ads don't make Sterling look noble and kind. Rather, they make him look like he's a cheap buffoon who can't even afford a high-school graphic design student or a proofreading computer program.
This first ad is the one I've been saving up for months; "Helping kids breath in LA" (in the headline, no less!):
And then, just yesterday, I saw this one in the LA Times. I mean really, two errors in one paragraph?
Sure, maybe Sterling won't spend minimum wage to get some monkey to pretty up his print advertisements. Who reads a print newspaper nowadays, anyway? But then why go through the effort and cost in the first place? And where is the publicist or personal assistant or lawyer or chambermaid to help save Donald from himself?
So I'm going to start running these when I see them, and tagging them appropriately. Unfuckingbelievable, that guy.
Ok, I'm now 17 (Now 9 days, we're not in opening day form yet -Stubbs) days away till I run the LA5K and Marathon for the Dodgers ThinkCure! team. My own personal goal is to raise $2,000 so I get to 'Take the Field', a dream of mine since I was little, during the pregame. To encourage you to donate, I have made a very specific SOSG Fundraiser. I'm going to sell 4 different size Smonks. The 4 Smonkigos as I am calling them, will have the honor of running the races with me. Then they will be shipped to their owner. I will have a pic of me at the finish line with said Smonks attached to me. And each will have a COA for proof of how valuable they are. There is four different Smonks, sizes and prices are: Tall - $25, Grande - $50, Venti - $75, and Trenta - $100 Just click the donation link and under comments, list the size you want. Only one of each size will be worn during the race! ("Tall" Size Shown In Pic, Hat Not Included)
That's right, we're back at it with the A's again, this time hosting the Oakland team and their fans, the Athletics Supporters. This time, it's Chris Capuano who makes his Dodgers (spring training) debut, going against Jarrod Parker (who has 4 Ks over 2 IP this spring). Wednesday, we kept former Dodger Manny Ramirez from getting a hit (he didn't play, to be fair). Can we keep up Manny's 0-for-2012-spring today?
Last year, as most of you know, I was obsessed with MLB.com's "badges", this curious sidebar diversion that mlb.com had constructed when "watching" live games over Gameday on a computer (mobile devices and tablets would not work). Three players from each team were selected seemingly randomly, and if a player achieved his pre-set condition (for example, "double" for a hitter, or "8 Ks" for a pitcher), you could "collect" the player's badge if your Gameday window was open at the time of the achievement.
The badge looked basically like a pog, with the team name on the top, player's name on the bottom (usually both names, but in some cases only the last name was listed in the badge--even when a first name might have fit without issue), and a goofy mugshot in the center. Infantile, right?
Players' badges could only be collected once (which was stupid). And if you had a game open, you could inadvertently collect the opposing team's badges as well--and you couldn't get rid of them once they entered your collection (another stupid thing, since people could be "trading" badges in a secondary market). Collections were kept in a nifty badge case via one's mlb.com login.
At first, of course, I thought it was ridiculous. But as the players started adding up, it got addicting to collect this meaningless currency, and watch my badge collection grow. And in one of the rare seasons where I didn't even buy a hobby box of baseball cards to open (one of my springtime rituals), it helped me keep up with players I didn't know.
By season's end, I had amassed 388 badges, enough to fill 24 "cases" (4x4 virtual badge cases). Badges were cut off for the post-season. But I was pretty psyched, even though they're absurd and have no value and are almost certain to be wiped from my account any second.
Which is why I want to document them for posterity here. I don't have enough time now to run regressions or stats on them, unfortunately. And some of them are missing images so I'm not even sure what team is being represented (which may be tricky if a player switched teams mid-year; my Rafael Furcal badge, for example, was registered with the Cardinals. Players switched positions in the cases all season long; at first, they were organized by date of badge acquisition, but even in the end, when they tried to alphabetize the players by last name, it wasn't clean (see; Jerry Sands, placed in between Torii Hunter and Raul Ibanez; why they wouldn't let a user organize his or her own collection makes no sense).
But grabbing those non-everyday players was a mini-thrill, since they had to be selected by the MLB.com badge gods, and then they had to perform in that game as well. All the stars had to align. Which made it cool for me to have snagged Jerry Sands and Marcus Thames.
By my quick count, I think I got 12 Dodgers in total, just under the league average, which means that there are some other teams that are over-represented there unfortunately (likely the by-product of having set up most of my Gameday viewing windows while at work, while east-coast games were starting to occur). I ended up leaving my work computer on and multiple windows open on almost every weeknight, in an effort to collect more badges. And of course, as the season progressed, it got harder and harder to add to one's collection.
But with the 2012 season almost upon us, I figure I should at least save the 2011 Dodger badges before they get wiped away for all time. So, without further ado:
#1 in ERA across the majors, behind Chad Billingsley.
#2 in batting average across the NL, behind Cory Sullivan (who is gaining upon the faceless Starling Marte of the Pirates).
Here we go, baby! Optimism abounds!
Aaron Harang takes the hill for the first time in a Dodgers uniform, but we shouldn't be expecting much; he's only had a spring training ERA south of 3.00 once in the last five seasons (four with the Reds, then last year with the Padres). But according to John Soohoo (whose image we've swiped here), he may have lost that goofy rodent on his chin that MLB.com's Gameday says he's got! So there's that.
The A's are 4-2 already this spring, playing as many split-squad games as mitosis would physically allow. Today, they start a guy from Berkeley who has a 9.00 ERA this spring. Can the Dodgers corner Tyson?
Not quite as erotic as this, to be sure.
Video of Ethier's solo HR in yesterdays' 8-4 loss to the Giants is here. Ted Lilly's horrific first inning and shaky second inning (5 ER over 2 IP, with an ERA of 22.50) made this game difficult to watch / hear, but at least 'Dre was carrying the lumber.
Oh, and the Angels are undefeated this Spring through two games.
So should I assume we are stuck with this sorry make-believe ballpark for the entire spring training season? Sigh. Well, at least the retro-style scoreboard banner along the top is pretty cool.
(Dammit, I'm not sure why this didn't post at 9a as intended. My bad. -Sax)
Bless that Franklin Stubbster. The SoSG one, that is.
It's been a cold, dark offseason for Sax here, really not wanting to engage in reading most Dodgers news given the oppressive shadow of Frank McCourt, his long protracted separation from the Dodgers' organization, and his grubby little fingers all over the parking lots of Chavez Ravine. I read great news about Clayton Kershaw and Matt Kemp--even potential 2012 batting champion James Loney--and I'm still finding it hard to get fired up for the 2012 season.
That is, until Senor Stubbs here launched yesterday's Game Thread.
Game Threads are back! Game Threads are back! Suddenly, there was something else to do at work (besides work, that is)! There was joy in Mudville! There were even happy thoughts listening to Charley and Rick calling the game on my new mlb.com At Bat app (only $15 for multiple devices this year, finally). Okay, so I got frustrated at Steiner / Monday again when I couldn't tell what was happening in the game itself, but still. It was something. It was the start.
It was hope. A New Hope, if you will.
The Dodgers took yesterday's game against the White Sox 6-4 and now sit squarely at top of the Cactus League standings (actually, they're up there with five other undefeated teams, two of which whom have two wins under their belts. But who's counting?). And today, the Dodgers take on the hated Giants. Baked Zito vs. Ted Lilly (who may also be baked, as far as I know)!
It's on, boys!
Here's the Blue Jays' J.P. Arencibia (which has a nice Kurkjian coda at the end, "my career is over!"):
And here's the Rays' Elliot Johnson, who throws in obscure stats to boot ("step up and imitate the geeky little sportswriter"):
The Red Sox organization has an imitation of its own, as well, but it wasn't nationally televised; and frankly, this meme has already jumped the shark. But it's funny! Even if it's only AL East teams who seem to be in on the gag.
Star Wars conceptual artist Ralph McQuarrie dies (CNN.com)
Ralph McQuarrie Remembered (StarWars.com)
It was a difficult year, that 2011 Dodgers season. But I suppose since we're four short days away from the first spring training game, and just over a month from our first regular season game, that it's time we retire the SoSG 2011 record.
Going 10-7 (.588) in a season when the Dodgers went 82-79 (.509) overall and 42-39(.519) at home is a pretty impressive feat. Plus, we went 1-0 on the road in St. Louis, a comeback victory that defied logic and was truly magnificent to watch.
So without further ado, here's the Sons' tally from 2011:
SoSG 2011 Record: 10-7
4/2: L, 0-10 (Delino)
4/3: W, 7-5 (Sax)
4/10: W, 6-1 (Sax)
5/3: L, 1-4 (Sax)
5/16: L, 1-2 (AC, Sax)
5/17: W, 3-0 (AC, Sax)
6/1: L, 0-3 (Delino)
6/18: L, 0-7 (AC)
7/5: L, 0-6 (Delino, Sax)
7/7: W, 6-0 (AC, Sax)
7/24: W, 3-1 (Sax)
8/12: W, 1-0 (Sax)
8/22: W, 2-1 (AC, Sax) [Road!]
8/28: L, 6-7 (Orel, Sax)
8/29: W, 4-1 (Sax)
8/30: W, 8-5 (Orel, Sax)
9/16: W, 7-2 (Delino, Sax)
Record by Son:
Delino: 1-3 (.250)
Orel: 1-1 (.500)
Alex Cora: 3-2 (.600)
Sax: 10-4 (.714)
I am clearly the big winner. The Dodgers should invite me to every game; with a .714 winning percentage, we would have run away with the championship last year.
Earlier: SoSG's 2010 record; SoSG's 2009 record. SoSG Nomo found SoSG's 2008 record as well. (I can't find the 2007 record right now...)
